Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden: How to grow tomatoes and make relish with them

Tomatoes are great to freeze, make into pasta sauce or relish, but the nicest by far is to eat them straight from the vine! Photo / Pixabay

Kem Ormond is a feature writer for NZME community newspapers and The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she’s getting her tomatoes ready for summer.

OPINION

First up, I am happy to be honest and say I am still a learner when it comes to growing tomatoes.

Even though I have grown them for many years, I am the typical busy person; good intentions, good plants, well-staked and tied, healthy well-composted soil … get busy, utter chaos!

I have always managed to grow enough to make some great relish, which I will share further down, and as I try to avoid food waste, I even make green chutney with my unripe green tomatoes at the end of the season.

My son, on the other hand, lives in Spain, so I hope he is growing and not throwing his tomatoes - like those taking part in La Tomatina - a festival in Buñol where participants throw tomatoes at each other - it is said to be the biggest food fight in the world.

In my household, the tomato seedlings have been pricked out into six packs (some for friends).

One interesting thing was that the heirloom tomato seed germinated far earlier than the commercial seed that I planted at the same time.

Tomatoes can be grown in a small space, even in a pot, especially if they’re grown up a stake, which is an excellent way of utilising limited space.

Labour Day is usually when I plant out my tomatoes.

Your soil temperature needs to be at least 15C for the plants to thrive, so down South you will probably need to plant a little later if planting outside.

After deeply forking over the well-composted area where I am going to plant, I put a stake close to where I will plant the tomatoes, before putting them in.

It is well worth using robust stakes as they will need to take the weight of all those tomatoes you hope to grow!

Tomatoes like to grow in airy, sunny spots and do not like wet feet.

Plant your tomatoes about 60cm apart.

Tomatoes require a high level of nutrients right through their growing cycle as they are hungry feeders.

You can purchase specialist tomato fertilisers from garden centres or use liquid seaweed or the like.

They also like the soil to be moist but do not overwater.

Pests and diseases

Signs of early blight. Photo / 123rf

I have been pretty lucky over the years as I have managed to have no pests, fungal or bacterial diseases ... just the odd hungry bird.

I would say this has been more luck, than good management.

I rotate where I plant my tomato plants and I keep a good eye on their progress during the season.

I have often wondered if living in the country and growing my own tomato plants has helped over the years to keep some of the nasties at bay.

Early and late blight are the worst culprits when it comes to fungal and bacterial disease.

There are several fungicides that have a protective function, and some of these are organically acceptable.

These need to be applied before infection takes hold as they won’t eradicate fungal attack.

Being proactive is a far better approach than trying to deal with the problem when it arrives.

Psyllids are another major pest that attacks tomato plants, apart from growing in a covered shade house, the best thing you can do is make sure your plants are as healthy as possible and the ground kept moist.

Watering late in the day, or early in the morning, being careful to avoid wetting the foliage, will help to deter diseases.

Watch out for birds that are prone to eating the fruits as they ripen.

Tomatoes as they grow

Remove the laterals that appear above each leaf as soon as possible, to ensure a single leader.

I do this by pulling them off with a sharp tug to one side.

I then make sure my plant is securely tied to the stakes.

If the laterals are left to grow, it will be like the invasion of the triffids!

When the laterals are left to run wild, they can encourage disease, plus it prevents the light from getting in to ripen the tomatoes.

Tomato flowers need some form of pollinating agent and usually, this is done by bees - or what I call self-tapping - in other words, brushing past them when working in the garden.

Unfortunately, honeybees can’t seem to navigate around a greenhouse, so instead you may need to purchase small hives of bumble bees, which love life in a greenhouse.

However, they usually don’t last a season and may need to be replaced.

Enjoy your tomato growing, they are great to freeze, make into pasta sauce or relish, but by far the nicest, to eat straight from the vine!

Relish is so tasty on a cracker topped with cheese

Here is the tomato relish recipe that I have used for years.

Viv’s mum’s recipe for tomato relish

(I still use old measurements)

Ingredients

Tomatoes, 5 lb

Onions, 1.5 lb

Sugar, 1.5 lb

Vinegar, 2 cups

Salt, 2 Tbsps

Curry powder, 2 level Tbsps

Cayenne pepper, quarter tsp

Mustard (powder), 2 tsp

Cornflower, 2 Tbsp

Method

Cut up tomatoes and onions and add all ingredients except cornflower.

Boil for 1 to 1 and a quarter hours.

Then mix in cornflower, previously mixed to a smooth paste with a little vinegar.

Boil for 8-10 minutes.

When nice and thick, pour into hot jars and seal when cold.